FRANKENSTEIN foods are off the menu in Bury schools.

Council chiefs have assured parents that genetically modified food will not be served to children in the borough until it is proved safe.

Up to 9,000 primary school children a day eat school meals in the borough, and catering officers wrote to suppliers as early as last July asking them not to provide products containing modified ingredients.

They are now waiting for a decision from Bury Council to see if this will be extended to meals supplied by social services and other civic catering.

Mr Ray Worrall, borough catering officer, said: "As far as the use of GM food in schools is concerned we took this decision as a department six months ago when we first heard about the issue. "It is hard to stop its use completely, especially in soya products, but we asked suppliers not to provide us with anything containing modified ingredients."

Bury Council banned beef from school meals for three years at the height of the BSE scare and now councillors are to investigate the sale of modified food in the borough.

They will also ask local people what they think - whether GM food should be labelled and whether they would eat it.

Mr Worrall added: "We are always looking at our food, and until we know the results of the tests we would want to be cautious.

"We are waiting to see what the council does but we took the decision as school meals are an important issue."

Council leader Derek Boden confirmed that health and safety was paramount when buying food for school meals.

"We take a lot of care," he said. "During the BSE crisis, we protected the children by taking things off the menu until it was concluded that the risk was insignificant."

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